NC nanotech conference wraps up in H.P.

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Matt Evans

The Business Journal

The 2006 North Carolina Nanotechnology Conference wrapped up Friday in High Point, highlighted by a presentation from Dr. Anthony Atala, head of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University.

The conference brought together entrepreneurs, scientists and investors interested in the opportunities being generated by North Carolina's young nanotechnology sector. Nanotechnology is the science and engineering involved in creating and manipulating materials on the scale of a nanometer, or one billionth of a meter.

Nine North Carolina nanotech companies presented at the conference, including two based in the Triad: Quartek Corp. of High Point and NanoTech Labs of Yadkinville.

Reyad Sawafta, president of Quartek, formally introduced his plans to launch a NanoAccelerator in High Point. The NanoAccelerator would allow for startup nanotech firms to share resources and technology in order to reduce the amount of initial capital and time required to get off the ground.

Sawafta distinguished the accelerator from a traditional business incubator by emphasizing the key role he anticipates for the sharing of intellectual resources, in addition to equipment and administrative services.

"We need a place to share brainpower," Sawafta said. "If we all team together, we're going to get somewhere."

The accelerator would accept three to five companies a year and aim to spin them off through a round of financing, sale or license deal in six to 18 months, Sawafta said.

NanoTech Labs intends to be part of the accelerator, according to company officials, and Sawafta said he has been approached by three other companies from outside the state interested in joining.

Atala's presentation focused on his team's research into regenerative medicine, which involves using tissue from a patient with a diseased organ such as a kidney or pancreas to generate a healthy new organ that can then be implanted in the patient. The technique, which is still the subject of intense research, eliminates the problem of rejection, which happens when an organ from another person is used for a transplant.

Nanotechnology is used in building the "scaffolding" on which the new organs are grown, Atala explained. Because the science operates on a cellular level, nanotechnology advances will be required to help doctors know where regenerated cells are going in the body and what they are doing, and to evaluate the effect on patients.

The 2006 NC Nanotech Conference was organized by the Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network.

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